I wrapped up Mass Effect tonight. Or rather to say, I wrapped up the Paragon edition of Mass Effect and rolled myself a Renegade for another go. I was going to try a playthrough with a male Shepard, but honestly the guy they hired to perform the male-version voice sounds like a complete dweeb after 42 hours of Jennifer Hale. So! Now Shepard is a ruthless Earth-born woman with a Mediterranean appearance and a decidedly goth sense of fashion. Because nothing says “Renegade” like expressing your individuality by conforming to a “non-conformist” standard.
But before I sit through a few dozen hours of faintly familiar dialogue trees and sit through detailed lectures on the nature of Spectres again, I think I should have a go at BioShock. I hear it’s actually widescreen now.
Also, the last post’s discussion thread was quite valuable. Now I have about a dozen massive PC RPGs to grind through, so thanks for that. I actually already own Mac versions of Baldur’s Gate, Fallout and Fallout 2 that I’ve never done anything with… and, annoyingly, I can’t really do anything with the first two since they predate OS X by a few years and thus won’t run on current Mac hardware. Le sigh.
Someone helpfully pointed out something called “Tutu,” a fan app that lets you convert (OS 9-based) Baldur’s Gate to the (OS X-based) Baldur’s Gate 2 engine. Alas, you need to have a functioning install of the first game to get it started, and that is in fact impossible to create on an Intel Mac. Progress is awesome.
As for the games that never made it to Mac, like Planescape: Torment, those’ll have to wait until I buy my next MacBook, which will likely be next summer. I don’t have space on my current system for a full XP Boot Camp install, you see, and I don’t think I’d have much luck with Parallels.
Say… I just remembered why I gave up on Mac/PC gaming about a decade ago.
I traded in BioShock (and Eternal Sonata) to buy Mario Galaxy. 65 stars later I have no doubt I made the right decision.
If you want to hate Mac/PC gaming even more, you can try banging on those Classic games with Sheep Shaver: http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/sheepshaver/
I actually got a working emulated system up and running on my MacBook using OS 9, although I didn’t keep messing with it long enough to learn much.
What were your final impressions?
Please tell Jeff Green I said “Hi.” He’ll know what you mean.
Huh. I have native OSX versions of both Fallouts installed on this here powerbook right now. Did they release multiple versions?
You know what really bothers me. That I’ll never marry Sarah Silveman. But do you see me crying about. No. Anyway, just to not seem completely useless I’ll post a link probably everyone knows about: http://www.macwindows.com/emulator.html
WinTel looks nice, and for 25 bucks, it’s O.K.
Don’t be fooled! Unless 2K Boston has changed their tune, BioShock as originally released was presented in the intended widescreen perspective–they just went back and added a mode that shows you more than you’re supposed to see due to Internet whining.
I’d like to try Mass Effect with a very different character once I finish my first runthrough, but I don’t know if I can really afford to spend that much more time on something that won’t be entirely new, which is really a shame. All these Renegade options are so tempting, but I just can’t make my main guy be a jerk.
The male Shephard voice sounds fine to me, but my guy is something of a by-the-book goody-goody, so it fits his personality. I can see that it might not work so well for a Renegade.
Persona 3 Persona 3 Persona 3
Forget Bioshock. Unlimited Saga calls.
(Whoops, sorry for the bad formatting. I could have sworn I hit “Preview Comment”, not “Post”…)
Wait. I love Fallout. Please drop everything else in your life to play the Fallout games for my entertainment. Thanks.
I rarely comments on blogs…but you never played Fallout/Planescape Torment?? Mike +1, drop everything and go play them. You will thank us later.
I’m more surprised that you don’t have a PC. Cheap $500 desktop + $10/month subscription to GameTap = all the classic gaming you’ll ever need (they have BG2 and Planescape. Not sure about Fallout)
Haha, gametap. That’s a good one man. Yeah, the only way to play classic games like Sonic the Hedgehog or Fallout is gametap or virtual console (hope it does PC someday, because if it doesn’t, we are majorly screwed). pfft.
Seriously, get a PC Parish, Macs are for posh people. Plus, I think Steve Jobs went from hippie to Rupert Murdoch about 20 years ago, so Bill Gates is the lesser of two evils (at least he tries to keep things kinda cheap).
What a useful comment.
I know. It’s not. Get high while listening to Equinoxe, that’s awesome kids. Also, don’t use drugs.
The first 4 hours of bioshock are pretty cool. By then you’ve seen all the enemies and gotten most of the powers, save for the more powerful versions. Some of the period accents are cool. All the talk of Game of the Year may have been premature.